To extract user desired data from a database, known is an information retrieving apparatus that enables a user to input a few of characters constituting a target name, provides the user with data matching the input characters, and enables the user to selectively designate the provided data. Further, a method in which a user speaks a corresponding name through a voice input and data is retrieved using the result of the voice recognition is known.
A representative information retrieving apparatus includes a task of setting a destination in a car navigation system, search of music in an audio system, and the like.
The car navigation system uses an information search interface as above to retrieve facility names present cross the country and to set a destination. In this information search, first, a user inputs a portion of a facility name via a touch panel or a remote controller in a car navigation system. Next, by pressing a search button, a list of facilities including a character string input by the user is displayed. By selecting a facility name from the list of facilities, a destination may be set. Further, the user may set the destination by vocally speaking a facility name.
An input via the touch panel or the remote controller has a merit capable of performing search by partially inputting a known name without a need to input the whole name. However, an operation of pressing a button and the like needs to be performed a plurality number of times and thus, the operation takes a long time. Meanwhile, an input using a voice recognizing function has a merit capable of performing the input within a short period of time since the input is over once the user speaks a name. However, since a recognition rate of the voice recognition is not 100%, a recognition error occurs and thus, the operation may need to be performed again. Further, in the voice recognition of the car navigation system, it is normal to maintain the number of perceivable vocabularies to be small in order to increase a recognition rate and to decrease a processing time during voice recognition of the car navigation system. Therefore, generally, it is possible to receive only a formal name of a facility and the number of receivable facilities is limited. Therefore, even though the user speaks a name that naturally comes up to the user, the car navigation system does not recognize the name and thus, there is an issue in that the user cannot input a desired destination. This issue is generally referred to as a vocabulary excluding speech.
To solve the above issue, a function enabling the user to register a voice recognized vocabulary with respect to a predetermined facility is known (hereinafter, referred to as a voice recognized vocabulary registering function). In this function, the user initially selects a desired facility according to a method such as inputting a name, an address, and the like, via a touch panel or a remote controller. Next, the user inputs a vocabulary to be used for voice recognition with respect to the selected facility. As the input method, an input of a Kana character via the touch panel or the remote controller or an input method using voice is known. For example, the user selects a home address of Mr. Suzuki that is a friend of the user and in this state, sets “Suzukisanchi” using “Yomigana”. Accordingly, by later speaking “Suzukisanchi” as the voice input, the user may execute a predetermined operation of the car navigation system such as setting of a destination to the home of Mr. Suzuki.
Further, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology of creating a substitute vocabulary by applying a word substitution rule with respect to a formal facility name, and registering the created substitute vocabulary to a voice recognized dictionary, thereby recognizing a corresponding name even though a user speaks a vocabulary that does not correspond to a formal name.